Durham's Paul Collingwood defies Yorkshire

Durham (388 & 100-4) drew with Yorkshire (589-8d)

No one does gritty resistance quite like Paul Collingwood. The former England batsman has yet to lead his title-winning Durham side to a first victory of 2014 but he does not surrender easily to defeat and the two hours he spent scoring his unbeaten 14 on Wednesday only underlined that.

Yorkshire lost a little time -- 11 overs' worth -- to the weather but had scented a win, even after the battling spirit epitomised earlier in the day by Jamie Harrison and Graham Onions, who stretched their ninth-wicket stand into the second hour to delay the follow-on.

Having finally seen off those two, Harrison was undone by Kane Williamson, the off-spinner, for a well-crafted 31, and Onions could not avoid a ball from Liam Plunkett that was too quick for him. Yorkshire then ripped through Durham’s top order and seemed to have the momentum to finish the job.

Inside the first 19 overs of the 60 left in the match when the follow-on began, they accounted for both century-makers from the first innings as well as Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who owed them something after his second-ball first innings duck.

Mark Stoneman was unlucky, Plunkett deflecting a Keaton Jennings drive into the stumps at the non-striker’s end, but Scott Borthwick succumbed to a snorter from Jack Brooks that took the glove, and after Sangakkara, disappointing again, chased a wide ball to second slip after the streakiest 14, Michael Richardson edged leg-spinner Adil Rashid’s first ball to wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd.

Rashid bowled superbly, asking questions with almost every ball, and he almost had Collingwood twice. The captain’s determination, however, with his example followed impressively by Jennings, who finished with 54, eventually won the day as handshakes were offered with seven overs remaining.

“We needed to show some character because it was unlike us the way we bowled and dropped catches on the first day,” Collingwood said. “We thought it was a 280 pitch maximum, and I certainly would have bowled first, so to concede 300 more than that meant we had to show a lot of fight for the remainder of the game to get a result.”